The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Monday that Green Party candidate, Howie Hawkins, will not appear on the presidential ballot, ending a legal dispute that caused the state to temporarily stop sending absentee ballots to voters.
The court temporarily suspended local election officials from sending out ballots, which did not include Hawkins name, last week until they could decide whether the Green Party should be added to the ticket, according to CNN.
Green Party candidate for NY Governor, Howie Hawkins, has a hat placed on his head by a campaign worker October 27, 2010 at the Bowling Green Bull in New York. At his “Wall Street Rodeo” Hawkins said that stock transfer tax money should be going into jobs not back into Wall Street coffers. AFP PHOTO/DON EMMERT (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images)
However, the court ruled Monday that adding Hawkins would cause more issues.
“We would be unable to provide meaningful relief without completely upsetting the election,” the court wrote in its 4-3 decision.
“The most likely state of current affairs is that municipal clerks have already sent out hundreds, and more likely thousands, of those absentee ballots. Ordering new ballots to be printed would be an expensive and time-consuming process that would not allow counties and municipalities to meet the statutory deadlines for delivering and sending ballots.”(RELATED: NYT Poll Shows Close Races In Nevada, New Hampshire, Wisconsin)
Adding Hawkins to the ballot this late in the game “would create a substantial possibility of confusion among voters who had already received, and possibly returned, the original ballots,” the court wrote.
Election officials are now racing to send out ballots Tuesday.
“Oh, we’re busy,” Wendy Helgeson, Town of Greenville clerk told the Associated Press.
In Madison, one of the state’s largest cities, the clerk’s office said employees were working around the clock to deliver thousands of ballots after the ruling.
We are working late so we can start mailing out absentee ballots first thing in the morning. pic.twitter.com/zA5doDr1BP
— Madison WI Clerk (@MadisonWIClerk) September 14, 2020
“We are working late so we can start mailing out absentee ballots first thing in the morning,” they tweeted Monday evening.
Clerks are working to meet a Thursday deadline to mail ballots to the more than 1 million votes who have requested them, according to the AP.